The Bush administration this month "quietly orchestrated a major shift in U.S. policy toward Iran," requesting $85 million for a plan "not just to contain Tehran’s nuclear ambitions but also to topple the Iranian government."
An unclassified State Department cable released yesterday offers details on this new strategy. (The Progress Report has acquired a copy of the document, which you can read here.) The cable announces a new Office of Iranian Affairs, and serves as a global casting call for Iran and Persian language experts. It states that the U.S. is establishing positions in the United Arab Emirates and developing "reporting" positions in countries with large Iranian exile communities, including Germany, Great Britain, and Azerbaijan, among others (a strategy also used prior to the war in Iraq).
In related news, the president of the conservative Hudson Institute has published a commentary urging the Bush administration to use "an American military strike to knock out Iran's uranium processing capacity."
"Will Bush do it?" Herb London asks. "He cannot afford not to do it."
Yet numerous U.S. military analysts and Iran experts have said there are no good military options to the Iran nuclear impasse.
Personally I hope we can find a better way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment